This invention relates to building construction and particularly to that portion of building construction that utilize standard timbers in building construction, particularly residential building construction. More particularly, the invention pertains to a corner brace for joining the ends of a barge rafter and facet or fascia board, whether the joint is a mitered or butt joint.
In building construction, particularly residential construction, the joint between the barge rafter and the facet or fascia board has long presented problems. In a 90.degree. butt joint, one end of either the barge rafter or fascia board is totally exposed, making an unsightly joint, that if not carefully measured and cut, is difficult to match. The common solution to the problem is a mitered 45.degree. joint, which is attractive and leaves no totally exposed board end.
However, achieving a mitered 45.degree. joint requires careful and skillful cutting and mitering. If the boards or timbers are warped, or the angle slightly off, the fit of the mitered joint is unacceptable.
Further, even if a mitered joint or a butt joint is caulked to close a gap, as the lumber ages and weathers it shrinks and warps, breaking the seal with the caulking and must be repaired and recaulked.
The prior art has presented no acceptable means of either repairing such defective corner connections, or of remedying the problem when the building was constructed. Structural connections such as are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,414,300 are utilized to construct in a building truss an eave elbow or the crown joint in a roof structure, and is not suitable for use as a corner brace for connecting a barge rafter with a fascia board. Similarly, other corner connectors such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 528,679, 1,334,553, 1,352,335, and 3,305,252, generally disclose various corner connectors for use in making picture frames, or window frames and thus are not designed to carry the loads encountered in building construction.
Further, patents such as the '679 and '553 patents mentioned above must have slots cut into the ends of the timbers to be joined as a corner, which is unnecessary in building construction, would tend to weaken the construction joint, and would in addition be costly because it would involve additional labor to cut such a joint, not to mention the problems of aligning such slots because they would have to be cut by hand by the workmen.
In addition, a fastening bracket such as that disclosed in the '335 patent mentioned above, while it could carry the construction loads demanded in the joining of a barge rafter and fascia board, its design requires that the means for fastening the bracket to the mitered ends of the timbers penetrate the timbers in both a horizontal and a vertical direction, which would be complicated or in some cases impossible to do in building construction when joining a barge rafter and fascia board.
The corner connector disclosed in the '252 patent mentioned above, utilizes a series of spikes or teeth that can be driven into the corner timbers, and while suitable for such small non-load bearing construction such as picture frames and window frames, could not withstand the warpage and other load bearing stresses of a barge rafter and fascia board in building construction. In addition, because the connector would not be permanently and securely fastened to both of the ends of the rafter and board, it would not provide a joint more rigid than directly joining the two ends of the timbers together.
A corner bracket such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,854,268 would not conceal the abutting ends of the rafter and fascia board and would not provide sufficient rigidity to such a corner construction. The corner brace disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,024,691 is utilized as a reinforcement brace for strengthening the joint between the bevelled ends of abutting tubular metal members such as are commonly found in the frames of metalic storm or screen doors. The disclosed brace is especially designed to be slip-fitted within each of the adjacent, abutting frame members to which the tubular frames members may then be attached. Such a disclosed corner brace, however, is not suitable for rigidly holding abutting ends of a pair of large timbers such as a rafter and fascia board rigidly together in a tight abutting relationship.
Accordingly, one primary feature of the present invention is to provide a corner brace that will rigidly accommodate and support the abutting ends of a barge rafter and fascia board and hold them in rigid alignment.
Another feature of the present invention is to provide a corner brace that can be quickly and easily attached to a barge rafter and fascia board that will eliminate time consuming special fitting of the abutting ends of the two timbers.
Yet another feature of the present invention is to provide a corner brace that is sized to fit the timbers comprising a barge rafter and fascia board that will conceal the joint of the two timbers.
Still another feature of the present invention is to provide a corner brace for joining a barge rafter and fascia that fits snugly to the boards and is unobtrusive and can readily be painted to match the building construction trim.